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Does anyone have any stories about learning with Codecademy? I have a few friends that are very interested in learning to program (mainly web dev stuff - HTML/C

Does anyone have any stories about learning with Codecademy? I have a few friends that are very interested in learning to program (mainly web dev stuff - HTML/CSS/JS) and are looking to use Codecademy. I personally learned in high school by ripping apart existing websites, inspecting tons of lines of code, and trying to make things happen in the browser, so I don't know if Codecademy is the right route. Thoughts? Does it help with fundamentals?

zds 14y ago
We have a lot of examples of people learning with Codecademy - check a few out at Codecademy.com/stories.
xiaoma 14y ago
I follow this market pretty closely. My experience is that Codecademy is focused more on the marketing than on the product itself. When I last looked, it was only really basic stuff. But they've gotten a TON of media coverage, somehow! My hope is that they use their size to improve the educational offerings. In my personal experience as a learner, Code School (codeschool.com) is strictly superior -- clearer instruction, great videos and slides, and interactive repl-like coding experience and much more advanced material. Only some of it is free though. Khan Academy also has a top-notch format, has a lot of content and it's strictly non-commercial... but the programming stuff kind of spread out all over the place. For the most rigorous teaching I know of that you can get for free, go to Coursera or edX. They have videos as good as Khan Academy or Code School, and they actually have homework assignments that get evaluated. You have to wait for the courses to open, but that leads to some good things too, like having lots of peers going through it with you.
- tomasien 14y ago
  Disagree that Codecademy doesn't focus on product, agree with all your suggestions though. When attempting to master a skill, nothing should be viewed in a vacuum.
tomasien 14y ago
I learned everything I knew before I got a job as a programmer from Codecademy. I've learned vastly more by actually doing things, but the basis I needed to get started I learned fantastically with CA. I think it's also gotten way better from when I first started using it. The jQuery lessons are fantasticly useful, and the Python courses go way deeper and are far more useful than the original Javascript courses I first did.
- xiaoma 14y ago
  Now that's a pretty fantastic endorsement! At the time I went through their stuff, none of it was remotely challenging for me and I was still getting crushed in technical interviews. If you learned enough from their site to get hired as a programmer, then they must have changed[1] a ton on the past few months. I guess the question is if I go through all their material, will that plus my previous experience writing flash games and freelance webdesigning let me land a coding job at an edu and/or gaming place! [1]That probably explains the down-vote brigade that hit my other comment. I don't think I've ever seen 3 downvotes for a lengthy, constructive comment aimed at helping someone before.
  - tomasien 14y ago
    If you did everything on Codecademy right now, it would take you a long time (maybe 1-2 months to really understand it) but you'd be really well set up for any entry level coding job. But I'm entry-level, keep that in mind. I'm paid in large part to learn. I deliver plenty of billable hours, but it's understood I have a long way to go.
- aviswanathan 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. I've been hearing similar things of late: that early-on, Codecademy didn't really cut it but that now, they've really picked up their game.
mrwwalmsley 14y ago
Also check out http://codeavengers.com http://codeavengers.com, Its targeted at the total beginner, and has received lots of reviews from teachers trying in the classroom that say its courses are more carefully designed than CodeCademy. After doing an introductory course like CodeAvengers, I too would recommend coursera or CodeSchool

zds 14y ago

We have a lot of examples of people learning with Codecademy - check a few out at Codecademy.com/stories.

xiaoma 14y ago

I follow this market pretty closely. My experience is that Codecademy is focused more on the marketing than on the product itself. When I last looked, it was only really basic stuff. But they've gotten a TON of media coverage, somehow! My hope is that they use their size to improve the educational offerings. In my personal experience as a learner, Code School (codeschool.com) is strictly superior -- clearer instruction, great videos and slides, and interactive repl-like coding experience and much more advanced material. Only some of it is free though. Khan Academy also has a top-notch format, has a lot of content and it's strictly non-commercial... but the programming stuff kind of spread out all over the place. For the most rigorous teaching I know of that you can get for free, go to Coursera or edX. They have videos as good as Khan Academy or Code School, and they actually have homework assignments that get evaluated. You have to wait for the courses to open, but that leads to some good things too, like having lots of peers going through it with you.

tomasien 14y ago
Disagree that Codecademy doesn't focus on product, agree with all your suggestions though. When attempting to master a skill, nothing should be viewed in a vacuum.

tomasien 14y ago

I learned everything I knew before I got a job as a programmer from Codecademy. I've learned vastly more by actually doing things, but the basis I needed to get started I learned fantastically with CA. I think it's also gotten way better from when I first started using it. The jQuery lessons are fantasticly useful, and the Python courses go way deeper and are far more useful than the original Javascript courses I first did.

xiaoma 14y ago
Now that's a pretty fantastic endorsement! At the time I went through their stuff, none of it was remotely challenging for me and I was still getting crushed in technical interviews. If you learned enough from their site to get hired as a programmer, then they must have changed[1] a ton on the past few months. I guess the question is if I go through all their material, will that plus my previous experience writing flash games and freelance webdesigning let me land a coding job at an edu and/or gaming place! [1]That probably explains the down-vote brigade that hit my other comment. I don't think I've ever seen 3 downvotes for a lengthy, constructive comment aimed at helping someone before.
- tomasien 14y ago
  If you did everything on Codecademy right now, it would take you a long time (maybe 1-2 months to really understand it) but you'd be really well set up for any entry level coding job. But I'm entry-level, keep that in mind. I'm paid in large part to learn. I deliver plenty of billable hours, but it's understood I have a long way to go.
aviswanathan 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback. I've been hearing similar things of late: that early-on, Codecademy didn't really cut it but that now, they've really picked up their game.

mrwwalmsley 14y ago

Also check out http://codeavengers.com http://codeavengers.com, Its targeted at the total beginner, and has received lots of reviews from teachers trying in the classroom that say its courses are more carefully designed than CodeCademy. After doing an introductory course like CodeAvengers, I too would recommend coursera or CodeSchool